The rehearsal on Wednesday was devoted to the beyond the score musical examples. The concert will be filmed and made available for download, like the Miraculous Mandarin, so the rehearsal Thursday was filmed to use as patch material. I had to wear my suit, which did not make me at all happy.

On Friday we played a short tribute in memory of Rostropovitch. I was wondering if John Sharp, our principal cellist, would play something but we stuck with the usual – Bach, air from Orchestral Suite #3. When did this become the piece to honor the dead?

Jeffrey Kahane has been wonderful to work with this week. I haven't heard a touch like his on the piano very often - very light and fluid. He is really working hard too. Playing two concertos and conducting the symphony would be enough. On top of that, there is the Beyond the Score program where he has to play and conduct the orchestra through 80 (cont ‘em!) musical examples from piano concerto #27 on the first half of the concert, including switching back and forth between piano and fortepiano. Then on the second half, he has to play and conduct the piece.

Lastly, I have to say that often playing weeks with a reduced section (4 basses this week) is often a disappointing, infuriating, or worse. This week however, Mark Kraemer is very capably heading the section and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.